Montana Wildfires Portable Radio Station Use

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RoadRunnR Portable Advisory Emergency Radio Stations

Just-in-time use of Portable Highway Advisory Radio Stations helped the Montana Department of Transportation manage traffic, while wildfires raged.

Living at disaster's door meant the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) had to be prepared for fires this fall that unexpectedly endangered motorists' lives. So MDT called United Rentals' Alpine Construction Branch (UR) into service, leasing 3 RoadRunnR^® Portable Highway Advisory Radio (HAR) Systems to help manage traffic in fire-ravaged areas. ISS interviewed UR's Jeff Hollenback to learn how the units were used to forestall the emergency.

The American Dream to many means moving to a wilderness area. There, unfortunately, unpredictable wildfires often wipe out huge sections of landscape and endanger lives.
     The encroachment by people into the untamed natural settings of Montana sporadically poses special new challenges for the Department of Transportation and the National Forest Service, two government agencies charged with serving and protecting. Raging fires across the North and West now routinely make the news, along with other natural disasters (hurricanes and floods). These events insinuate themselves more and more often into the lives of an ever-growing population seeking the dream of living close to nature — perhaps too close.
     Last fall, as fires neared Missoula, George Schwartz of the Montana Department of Transportation contacted UR's Alpine Construction Branch for assistance. In the nick of time, the supplier provided portable RoadRunnR units from Michigan's Information Station Specialists to help divert traffic around the forest fires south of the city.
     Relates Jeff Hollenback, UR branch manager, "The fires were burning across .

. . Highways 93 and 12, which resulted in . . . road closures and delays. When the road was open, traffic was . . . escorted through by pilot cars, due to low visibility.
[In response, we] placed portable units on US Highway 93 near the junction of Highway 12 at Lolo, Montana, and south of Darby, Montana, on 93." MDT managed the messages for these HARs, which related to "the current status of road closures and delays on Highway 93 and Highway 12," according to Hollenback.
Although MDT and the Forest Service can't prevent naturally occurring disasters like forest fires, with the help of portable ISS RoadRunnR HARs, they can diminish the imminent human danger posed — just in time and for as long as needed.

Related Links . . .

Portable Advisory Radio Station Mainpage.